ODYSSEY - The 1st Album

If RIIZE’s first full-length album is meant to be a culmination of the moments they experienced in their first 20 months as a K-pop group, then “Fly Up” is a fitting lead single. The feel-good dance track channels a similar energy to RIIZE’s debut hit “Get a Guitar,” which also leaned into an unabashedly cheesy 1950s rock ’n’ roll sound when it was released in September 2023. While “Get a Guitar” chose a retro guitar riff as its signature sound, “Fly Up” uses choral vocals to hook listeners.

The group’s “emotional pop” concept is musically flexible, and <i>ODYSSEY</i> taps into different genres to tell its story of youth as a joyful time full of moments worth remembering. Instrumental interlude “Passage” separates the more upbeat first half of the album (UK garage track “Odyssey,” hip-hop banger “Bag Bad Back,” anthemic pop song “Ember to Solar,” “Fly Up,” and pop-rock bop ”Show Me Love”) from the slower, more sentimental second half (the dreamy, bass-driven “Midnight Mirage,” fan ballads “The End of the Day” and “Inside My Love,” and soaring album ender “Another Life”).

Behind-the-scenes music-makers on <i>ODYSSEY</i> include K-pop hitmakers Jacob Aaron (“Fly Up” and “Bag Bad Back”), KENZIE (“Ember to Solar” and “Inside My Love”), and danke (“Midnight Mirage”) and Korean rapper BIGONE (“Bag Bad Back”). “What if we could go back/To another life?” Korean lyricist Moon Seolree writes for RIIZE on “Another Life,” granting members Shotaro, Eunseok, Sungchan, Wonbin, Sohee, and Anton a musical opportunity to reflect on their journey from trainees to K-pop idols. “If the me of that time looked at me now/What would I say?”